Tappan Collective’s Chelsea N. Nassib On: Top Six Artists to Watch in 2017
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Chelsea N. Nassib, wearing Tory’s Rainford jacket and Kimberly sweater -
Photographed by Ungano+Agriodimas
Chelsea N. Nassib, founder of online gallery Tappan Collective, clues us in on the emerging artists gaining buzz in 2017.
Jonni Cheatwood’s mixed media works push our understanding of “painting” as a medium, emphasizing his process through and through. Cheatwood’s work is vibrant, filled with voluptuous, static forms contrasted by energetic bursts of gestural mark-making. These forms seemingly sit three-dimensionally on top of canvas that has been stitched together by the artist. Drop cloth, canvas, burlap, and textile pieces with previous lives are imbedded into the base of his work.
Cheatwood is certainly an artist to keep your eye on in 2017. He wants the viewer to be as involved with the painting as he is; he wants you to feel it palpitate. That’s what makes these new paintings to special — they really are alive.
Kelsey Shultis
Detroit-based artist Kelsey Shultis revisits highly textured oil painting in an entirely unique manner. Incorporating objects and environments familiar to us, Shultis abstracts these, simplifying colors and exaggerating with thick impasto. Her work straddles between both a nostalgia for places and objects, and a study of appreciating oil painting today. Her works are both humorous and heavy, melancholic and playful. Shultis is definitely one to watch in the upcoming year.
Jameson Magrogan
Baltimore-based artist Jameson Magrogan evaluates moments through an observational approach to painting. Each piece is vibrant with color, and repositions classical ideas of “perspective,” “still life,” and “composition.” What I love so much about Jameson’s paintings is the mind state they require of the viewer: they ask us to consider all of the parts and to observe the work as a whole without searching for an underpinned theory or concept. Magrogan says that defining the meaning of each picture he paints isn’t his task, because meaning changes person to person, moment to moment. He paints to explore something, whether it precipitates from memory, feeling, or an objective. We’re excited to see what he does in 2017, he’s going to do big things.
Brian Merriam
Brian Merriam has an eye for introspection and nostalgia. Shooting primarily desolate landscapes, Merriam travels year-long, traversing desolate lands such as Iceland, Alaska and Death Valley, to name a few. His eye captures magical moments, bringing a sense of calmness, reflection and longing to natural landscapes. Keep an eye on Merriam’s forthcoming series in 2017, as he’ll be debut a series of dream-like images that he has been developing over the past few years.
Struan Teague
Working between Dusseldorf and Copenhagen, Struan Teague’s abstract paintings and screen prints expose the role of intuition in the creation process. Teague’s use of instantaneous processes and materials, like screen print, spray paint, even dirt and spillage — force quicker and more irrevocable decisions to be made, resulting in intuition taking a crucial role in his process.
With Teague’s paintings, less is more, and you find yourself studying every mark and gesture. Ultimately, Teague’s paintings ask us to slow down and really consider the entirety of “composition.” This approach is refreshing in this age, asking us to reconsider the entire work of art, as something made up of many parts.
Caroline Denervaud
Caroline Denervaud’s work is developed around an exploration of the body through painting, drawing, collage and video performance. When you watch her interact with form, she explores the physical limits of the body through gesture and form building, only allowing mark-making where her body reaches on the paper. Denervaud is definitely someone to watch in the new year. She’s particularly unique because of her close relationship to her work, literally pressing her body to her paintings, keeping viewers from associating one without the other. Her body is absolutely intrinsic to her two-dimensional work, and that’s really special.